Stumbling Towards the Constitution

Jonathan Chu explores individual economic and legal behaviors, connecting them to adjustments in trade relations with Europe and Asia, the rise in debt litigation in Western Massachusetts, deflation and monetary illiquidity, and the Bank of North America.

'In this fascinating and exhaustively researched study, Jonathan Chu explores how between 1783 and 1787 the thirteen former colonies lurched toward a new understanding of 'governing in freedom.' With marked difficulty, they struggled to add muscle to an existing frame work for 'a central government that transcended state sovereignty.' Chu has produced a very impressive piece of historical scholarship.' - Jonathan Lurie, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Rutgers University

'Stumbling Towards the Constitution is an ambitious reconsideration of the Confederation period of American history. Chu surveys a wide range of economic activity land speculation, banks, Atlantic trade, China trade, and more to explore the ramifications of the economic changes that accompanied the Revolution. He argues powerfully and persuasively that the strategies Americans devised to cope with debt, insolvency, and a dysfunctional monetary system forced them to frame questions of political economy in ways that led to more fundamental consideration of the constitutional powers they would formulate in 1787. The result is a new understanding of the where the economic powers embodied in the Constitution came from.' - Bruce H. Mann, Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard University

JONATHAN M. CHU Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA.